Charvel Blog

In case you ever wondered what the members of Stone Sour would look like in drag, you’re about to get your answer.

In the new music video for Hydrograd track “Rose Red Violent Blue (This Song Is Dumb & So Am I),” the band heads to a seedy strip joint called Cheetahs. Right away, glam metal band Steel Panthers add to the Hollywood Sunset Strip vibe with a cameo appearance as waiters and bartenders.

As the clip progresses, we see shots of Stone Sour performing onstage — both as rockstars and pole dancers.

That Just Happened caught up with Red Dragon Cartel guitarist Jake E Lee at Obscenic Arts Recording Studio in Pennsylvania where he’s been working on the band’s sophomore album, Patina.

In an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview, Lee dives into his “Guitar-senal,” which includes his signature Charvel guitar, and how his goal is to make music that he wants to hear and to “stir things up a bit.”

Stone Sour guitarist Christian Martucci is currently out on the road in support of fresh album Hydrograd, which debuted at No. 8 on the US Billboard 200 and features hit track “Song # 3.” During one of his recent tour stops, Martucci allowed Charvel the unique opportunity of heading sidestage for a close look at his touring rig.

In the video from that visit (available below), Martucci shows off his road case, which just so happens to be loaded with Charvel guitars — from a Jake E Lee signature guitar to an array of customized USA Select guitars.

“I started playing guitar around 1985, and my favorite guitar players at the time and even still to this day were guys like Warren DeMartini and Jake E Lee so Charvel was like the goal,” says Martucci.

As well as explaining what drew him to the Charvel brand, Martucci also gives a quick rundown of the features of each guitar, shares info about his tuning setups and details how he uses each one live or in the studio.

Charvel continues its long-held partnerships with Warren DeMartini and Jake E Lee with the upcoming release of brand-new signature models. The Warren DeMartini USA Signature Frenchie and the Jake E Lee USA Signature Blue Burst will beunveiled this week at the Summer NAMM Show in Nashville, Tenn., and available to consumers in October 2017.

Warren DeMartini USA Signature Frenchie

Fans have long clamored for a replica of Warren DeMartini’s famed and beloved “Frenchie” guitar, as seen live on tour and on a slew of magazine covers throughout Ratt’s reign in the 1980s. Charvel has responded with the Warren DeMartini USA Signature Frenchie, available in a Snow White and a Gloss Black finish. Both are detailed with cross decals and a tribute quote to James Dean in French that translates “too fast to live, too young to die.”

Custom-made for the legendary lead guitarist, the Seymour Duncan® Warren DeMartini RTM (“Rattus Tonus Maximus”) bridge pickup is a powerful high-output humbucker that naturally compresses for a well-balanced and even tone, perfect for complex chording and precision soloing. The RTM is boosted by an SSL-4 Quarter Pound neck pickup, adding fat, supercharged punch and extra sustain.

The Frenchie also features a single volume control knob, three-way toggle switching, a Floyd Rose Original locking bridge and Gotoh® tuning machines.

Jake E Lee USA Signature Blue Burst

Jake E Lee’s original Blue Burst guitar gained notoriety during his stint with Ozzy Osbourne, as he recorded and performed live with the famous instrument throughout the band’s pivotal Bark at the Moon and Ultimate Sin years. Charvel® has recreated an unmistakable replica of Lee’s original model down to the very last detail.

Equipped with a versatile customized Seymour Duncan® JB Alnico II humbucking bridge pickup, this model can handle a diverse range of tones from sweet and warm to aggressive and distorted. It’s also supercharged with two powerful single-coil DiMarzio® SDS-1 pickups in the middle and neck for extra gain with a deeper, darker tone. The pickups are controlled with a five-way blade switch and single volume knob.

Available in a mesmerizing Blue Burst, this signature axe also features a brass Charvel hardtail bridge and output jack plate, and black Gotoh® tuning machines.

Charvel is proud to welcome solo American guitarist and songwriter Angel Vivaldi to the artist family.

“Working with Charvel has been incredible,” he said. “It’s an honor to work with a historic company that has had such an impact on the guitar community. What we’re currently designing together is nothing short of breathtaking… this prototype is already seeing a lot of miles on it! Humbled and excited to enter into this new era of my career with Charvel.”

Fans can catch Vivaldi out on the road with Andy James this fall on THE WAVE OF SYNERGY TOUR. The duo will hit 22 cities, which will also include joint VIP guitar clinics, complete with Q&A sessions, meet and greets, tour memorabilia and more.

Fans can also expect to hear brand new material from Vivaldi’s upcoming album Synapse. Get the details and tour dates here.

Charvel signature artist Guthrie Govan is currently in the middle of a summer-long Hans Zimmer Live tour, but he found a few minutes for this quick chat about the gig and his newest signature models.

Q: Is it a true story that when Hans Zimmer first contacted you on Facebook you thought it was a joke?

A: Yeah, it might sound paranoid but my experience with Facebook – I’ve had a few episodes like that where people purport to me that which they are not so experience taught me to be suspicious and it just seemed so farfetched.

Q: How did you reply then?A: I think it was something along the lines of, “Come on, we both know you are not Hans Zimmer. You are wasting my time and your time. You are not really Hans Zimmer so who are you and what do you really want?” And he replied, “no, no it really is Hans, the dodgy German composer. Here’s my phone number, please call me,” and I did.

It sounded authentic somehow, something about the second message and the persistence— like okay, he’s keeping up the charade, maybe it is really him.

Q: How did that call go when you rang him?

A: Very encouraging, very flattering because this is what Hans does. He stays up until 5 in the morning watching YouTube videos and looking for weird new musicians that he might want to work with and he found some clip of me playing fretless guitar and he liked the eccentricity of it. Originally he was looking for people playing fretless guitar because he wanted to reinvent the Thelma & Louise soundtrack and on the original recording it was played by Pete Haycock. Pete was very good friend of Hans and is no longer with us so it’s a very emotionally charged piece of music for Hans. So he went to all of this trouble to look for someone who could play slide guitar in a different way and then realized the piece of music was close to him that he didn’t want to do it in the set —he wasn’t ready and so we did a whole European tour last summer and only on the last gig of the tour did we play Thelma and Louise. I guess I didn’t screw up too badly because its back in the set every night now.

Back in April, New York-based guitar dealer the Music Zoo held a special event with RATT’s lead guitarist Warren DeMartini that is now available to the masses via new online videos.

The session was hosted by Guitar World’s Andy Aledort, and finds DeMartini in his element as he shares personal accounts of his successful career and details about his signature Charvel models. In between reminiscing and fielding questions from the fans, DeMartini also entertains the audience with jaw-dropping demos.

Watch the footage below, and see DeMartini live on RATT’s summer tour. Dates here.

Andreas Kisser has kept himself very busy lately — supporting Sepultura’s recent tour and enjoying the long-awaited world premiere of their documentary, while also dedicating time to his supergroup side project De La Tierra.

De La Tierra released sophomore album II last November, with lead track “Puro” debuting just days before the record dropped. Just last week, the band returned with a powerful new video treatment for the single that reinforces its “always darkest before the dawn” theme. In the clip, members of the group are tortured while in captivity, but their perseverance during eventually leads to freedom.

Watch the video now, and see Kisser on his one-of-a-kind custom Charvel San Dimas.